The Garden of Death
by Girls In White Dresses
Summary: AU - There are 3 people who stand in her way to get him back.


**The first day of Spring: Its sunny and so nice and most of the snow is melted! HELLO SPRING! Next day: It snows like a blizzard and you can't see anything but white. Today: snows half a foot. Spring where did u go T_T**

**This was inspired by "the story of a mother" by Hans Christan Andersen :) Read & Review or just Read! **

**Yay tomorrow is Spring Break :D FYI the cherry blossoms in Tokyo are supposed to bloom on March 30th! Early Spring is what I call ByaHisa season. Lets try to get to 500 stories for the ByaHisa section! We need 3 more stories...**

**Disclaimer: You already know what's supposed to go here...**

**Enjoy! ...I hope**

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><p>The heart monitor made beeping sounds as green lines spiked up on its screen.<p>

The door creaked open and the nurse, clad in white, came in carrying a clipboard.

"Hisana, you're still here?" The nurse sighed.

Hisana nodded slightly, her eyes still gazing sadly at his sleeping form.

"He's not going to wake up," the nurse said.

"He will," Hisana softly answered. "He will…" she was just trying to convince herself.

"No," replied the nurse in a firmer tone. "Just go home, okay?"

Hisana looked at Byakuya, his eyes peacefully closed, blankets covering up to his chin, the rise and fall of his breath faint and steady.

"It's been a month," the nurse said again.

When Hisana didn't answer, she tried again, tentatively. "You have to accept the situation. Look, we need this equipment for other patients. It's been a month and he hasn't woken up. He isn't going to wake up. Ever."

Hisana shook her head slowly, and looked at Byakuya with her beautiful eyes, tired and worried and grief stricken like they had been for the past month.

He looked so peaceful, so calm, lost beneath veils of another world, too far away to reach.

She reached out and brushed his bangs from his face, her touch like butterfly wings on his cheek.

"He'll wake up," she said, but she was close to tears.

It had been a month since that fateful day when it had been raining softly, drops of silver streaming through the air. They had been walking, sharing a brightly coloured umbrella, hand in hand, his fingers intertwined his hers, warm and strong and reassuring. They walked across a road.

She didn't see it coming.

A truck, speeding out of control on the slippery ice roads, came tearing down towards them without warning, so fast Hisana couldn't react. Suddenly she was pushed sideways, and the world exploded, light and colour blending together and the sickening crunch of the truck hitting something.

That something was Byakuya.

He'd pushed her out of the way so the truck missed her by a hair's breadth.

And in doing so, he'd been hit. Hard.

That was a month ago. Now he was lying on a hospital bed, not moving, not waking up, pale as a corpse.

The nurse stood uncertainly for a moment. "At least try to get some sleep," she said sadly, hurrying out of the room.

Hisana closed her eyes briefly.

When she opened them, an old man was standing over Byakuya.

It was Death.

Hisana stared at the old man. The room was cold and a freezing wind chilled her to the bone. The old man smiled at her, and disappeared as quickly and silently as if he had never been there at all.

The heart monitor went silent.

"No," Hisana whispered. "No….Give him back, let him live…please…"

The nurse burst in, along with two doctors.

They gaped at the still heart monitor. The nurse looked at Hisana with sorrowful eyes. "I'm sorry…he's gone…"

"No," Hisana whispered again, her voice shaking and trembling like a leaf in the wind.

She pushed past everyone and ran out the door, through the hallways, out into the chilly spring air.

No, no, no. Byakuya couldn't be dead, he just couldn't.

That old man… where was he?

She spotted a lone woman, dressed in long, pitch black robes, sitting on a cement bench.

The woman stared back with large, shiny, black eyes like new buttons.

"It was Death that took him," she said.

"Where can I find Death?" Hisana asked.

"I will tell you, but what can you give me in return?"

Hisana was speechless. "W-what do you want?"

"Your engagement ring," the woman spoke, and her strange voice was calm as she smiled.

Hisana glanced forlornly down at the sparkling band of silver and diamonds Byakuya had given her. She slipped it off her finger and handed it to the woman, who smiled wider.

"Go to that forest," she pointed at a tall gathering of dark pine trees hidden at the bottom of a hill, "and ask the man who lives in the shadows to lead you to Death's palace."

Hisana thanked her quickly and ran, her footsteps pounding on the ground and her heartbeat matching it.

Desperation lent her surprising strength, and soon she walked in the tall dark shadows of the sharp pine trees.

"What's a pretty girl like you doing here?" A gravelly voice resounded in front of her. She jumped, her skin prickling.

Something that felt like feathers tickled her face. A short man with a face hidden behind a red feather mask stood before her. There were two glittering red stones in the place of eyes on the mask. "Lead me to Death's palace," Hisana tried her best to sound commanding and bold, even as the gaping mouth and glittering eyes frightened her, scared her and it was the face she would see in her nightmares long after.

"What will you give me?" He asked.

"Anything," Hisana whispered.

"Anything?" The man repeated, and the feathers on his mask changed from blue to deep purple.

"Yes…" she thought of Byakuya.

"Your eyes, then," he said.

"What…?"

"Your eyes. I am quite fond of collecting eyes. And yours are the most beautiful I have ever seen. I think they'll go nicely in my collection. Such a lovely violet."

Seeing her expression, he continued. "Don't worry, my dear. It won't hurt a bit."

"I…" she stammered. "Yes, alright.." She tried to keep herself from trembling. Byakuya, she reminded herself.

The man smiled and told her to close her eyelids. When he told her to open them, everything was black and dark and she couldn't see anything.

Nothing.

"Very nice," the man purred. He gripped her wrist with his freezing and skeletal hand. He led her on, walking and walking, until he suddenly stopped.

"Here we are, my dear," he said.

A woman's voice reached Hisana's ears. "A human girl?"

"She had such lovely eyes. I'm so happy. Don't worry; she doesn't know how I got here."

Hisana's legs felt like jelly, and her mind was panicking like a trapped animal. She once again thought of Byakuya, his calm, grey eyes, the portrait of herself that he had painted for her, the feel of his lips on hers.

"Girl, I will lead you to Death's greenhouse. You wish to bring someone back?"

"Yes," Hisana choked out.

"Before I tell you what you need to know to bring someone back, I require payment."

"Anything," Hisana said again.

"I would very much like to have your hair. It's very beautiful and dark and silky looking. But I will trade you it for my old white hair."

"I would gladly give it to you," said Hisana.

So the old woman received Hisana's soft raven hair, and Hisana received the old woman's coarse, pale hair in return.

"When Death comes, you must threaten to pull up some of the flowers in his greenhouse. For that will scare him. His flowers are very important."

She took Hisana's hand and it too was stone cold. She opened a door, and Hisana stumbled into a room, or what felt like a room.

An icy wind suddenly swept through, chilling everything and freezing, cold breezes suffocating her. "You!" an old man's voice spoke. "What have you done to yourself! How did you get here before me?"

It must be Death still carrying Byakuya's soul.

Hisana began. "The person's life you took…he means the world to me."

"Give him back…" Her voice lowered to a strained whisper. "Please."

"You foolish girl," said Death. "I cannot bring him back to life."

Hisana reached out and grabbed a flower, its prickly stem strange under her touch.

"If you don't give him back, I'll destroy your garden," she said firmly.

"You wouldn't be so cruel," said Death calmly.

"I would… for him…" Hisana softly returned, gripping the fragile stem harder.

"No. I cannot give him back."

"Say goodbye to this flower," she said angrily, and forcefully pulled the one she had been holding out of the soil it was planted in.

Death laughed.

"Foolish girl," he said again.

"Let me tell you this. Each flower in here is a human soul. Pulling them out is the only way you can end their life. You just killed someone, Hisana."

He started to laugh again. "I will give you back your eyes, so you can see for yourself. The person's name whom you just killed is written on the petals."

Hisana blinked, and she could see again. Beautiful plants surrounded her, all shapes and sizes, fragrance in the air. But the flower she held in her hand was the most beautiful of all, to her. She was afraid to look at the blossom she had uprooted. But she did look down at the writing on the petals, and there it was

_Byakuya Kuchiki_


End file.
